A dictionary, Chinese medical book and comic books were amongst the commonly found objects in the museums’ archive on Chinese artefacts. Some objects that relate to drug taking, drinking and gambling are significant. An opium pipe & bottle, Chinese lotto ticket and wine bottle, for example. While they reflect certain entertaining lifestyles of the early Chinese settlers, they also proffer a mainstream and ideological bias.

This paired-up photograph of objects from Cromwell Museum and Central Stories Museum and Gallery is like a ‘chop suey dish’ [雜碎菜] that once was the stereotype of Chinese food in a Western society.